Alum Cave Trailhead: Alum Cave and Mount Le Conte

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Mount Le Conte (6,593') is the 3rd highest peak in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Its steep, isolated slopes form a biological island where some of the Park's rarest and most specialized plants live, many which are survivors of an intemperate glacial past. 5 plant species on Mount Le Conte are found nowhere else in the Smokies. Of five routes leading to Mount Le Conte, the Alum Cave Trail is the shortest and arguably most unique in its features and challenges. The Alum Cave Trail follows Alum Cave Creek and Styx Branch to Arch Rock, then steepens to Alum Cave and along narrow rock ledges up to the summit ridge.